Ancestral Healing Residential Intensive (Asheville, NC)

August 15 @ 7:00 pm - August 20 @ 11:00 am EDT

Ancestral lineage healing emphasizes learning to relate directly with one’s recent and more ancient blood ancestors for personal, family, and cultural healing. In this five-day intensive participants will learn through direct experience a life-long framework for navigating beneficial relationships with their ancestors and with the dead more generally.

This intensive will include the lineage repair work covered in other three-day trainings that I guide and that’s at the heart of my book Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing. For an overview of this approach to ancestral healing please see Intro to Ancestral and Family Healing (Feb 2017) in the archive of past talks (ancestralmedicine.org/talks). This foundational work includes practices to connect with supportive ancestral guides and partner with them to safely assist the dead who are still in need of assistance. Coming into direct relationship with your ancestors also helps to transform negative family patterns into blessings and encourages good health, self-esteem, clarity of purpose, and better relationships with the living.

In addition to working through the lineage repair cycle, participants in this residential intensive will also learn:

-Foundations of animism, including ways to stand in respectful relationship and solidarity with intact indigenous cultures
-Rituals and practices to honor the ancestors of a specific place who are not also ancestors of blood
-Skills to work with spontaneous ancestral contact
-Instruction for offering practice and tending an ancestor altar
-Practices of ancestor work for healing of intergenerational toxins (e.g., racism, sexism, colonialism)

The land in Western North Carolina is vibrant, and mid-summer is a beautiful time in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The grounds at Bend of Ivy Lodge (bendofivylodge.com) support spacious indoor and outdoor ritual work as well as personal solitude in nature (63 acres with hiking trails). The nearly week-long immersion in group ritual with other excellent humans promises to be a transformative deep-dive into ancestral reconnection.

Schedule: We begin with an evening teaching after dinner Tuesday, August 15th, 7-8:30pm and complete with a morning session Sunday, August 20th, 9:30-11am. The other four days we’ll follow a 10am-6pm rhythm with a spacious mid-day break. We’ll enjoy some evening ritual (e.g., fire circle) one or more days depending on weather and group flow.

Prior experience with inner work and personal healing, time in group ritual, and any practice of relating with teachers and guides in spirit are all helpful and none are a formal requirement. Our time will be a blend of teaching, direct visioning and trance work, group dialogue, and other ancestor-focused ritual. Folks new to ancestor work, adoptees, and those with a tough experience of family are warmly welcome. Those with a healing arts practice will learn skills to support your work, although the focus in your personal work with your ancestors.

Cost and Registration. Cost is $1225 for residential participants. This includes full course tuition, lodging for five nights at Bend of Ivy Lodge (twin bed in double bedroom in most cases), and 14 healthy meals (Tuesday dinner through Sunday breakfast). Cost is $775 for Asheville-area commuters (includes Wednesday through Saturday lunches only).

I know the cost is high for a lot of people. I’m committed to keeping the work accessible and balancing this with costs of hosting a comfortable residential retreat with healthy, tasty meals. I can have flexibility on payment timing and there are also a some scholarship available, including one specifically for People of Color and/or LGBTQ participants. Please talk with me about what would make your attendance possible. If you are in a position to contribute to the scholarship fund to make this work even more accessible, that’s great too.

To register and confirm your place, just be in touch and send a deposit of $300 via Paypal to: daniel@ancestralmedicine.org. Let me know if you prefer to send a check. Spaces are limited. The deposit serves as registration and confirms your space.